The month of July often represents an ostensible lull in the production schedule where members of the award-winning production staff at NFL Films can enjoy a brief respite. In that same moment though, there is a deluge of planning that takes place in order to ensure that the league’s production arm is ready to document the new season effectively.
For the last two seasons, resources have been allocated to an all-access documentary series in which cameras follow different position players throughout the regular season and playoffs. The first venture, titled Quarterback, captured elements of life on the gridiron and away from the field of Marcus Mariota, Kirk Cousins and Patrick Mahomes.
This past season, the series shifted its focus to wide receivers. The symbiotic relationship between the quarterbacks and receivers is evident throughout the eight-part docuseries, which is co-produced by Omaha Productions and 2PM Productions, and once again ends with a trip to the Super Bowl. Stakeholders felt comfortable in highlighting five different players within the series, two of whom play for the San Francisco 49ers. Deebo Samuel and George Kittle played pivotal roles in the organization’s NFC championship and trip to the Super Bowl, demonstrating their clutch factor and propensity for success throughout the journey.
Joseph Zucco had the responsibilities of overseeing both projects and ensuring that they would run smoothly. Within the most recent series, NFL Films assigned one director to each of the five players they were highlighting. Back at the headquarters, Zucco managed operations and creative processes, including storyboarding and ideating how the production would disseminate the footage it captured. The docuseries are both available to watch on Netflix.
“Because of the sensitivity of the nature of the footage that we’re capturing all year, no footage leaves NFL Films until after the season is over, so we’ll have rough cuts of episodes ready to go here and then we share, once the season’s over, with Netflix and the team at Omaha,” Zucco said. “Like any good creative process, they have creatives on their end that’ll share notes, and there’s always good discourse between all of us to try to put together the best product possible.”
In addition to Samuel and Kittle, the series follows Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson and Amon-Ra St. Brown. These five players all had vastly different seasons with various triumphs and tribulations, many of which were documented by NFL Films. In addition to game action, training, practices, meetings and other football-related activities, the project also explores the personal lives of these players.
Early in the season, directors of the project work to build a genuine relationship with the families and garner trust. The project is unscripted, and players are informed that being honest and open will more accurately convey their narrative in the end product. Adams, a member of the Las Vegas Raiders, emphasized his desire not to have anything fabricated and followed through despite physical impediments amid a mediocre season.
“When he signed up to do the show, I’m sure Davante did not expect his personal season or the Raiders’ season to start off the way that it did,” Zucco surmised, “but watching the series, hopefully you can tell [that] he was very, very candid with us when we were on location with him and in the interview setting about the struggles that he was going through really for the first time in his career.”
Gaining behind-the-scenes access provides consumers with glimpses into football operations while also fostering elements of relatability in different areas. Last year when the series followed NFL quarterbacks, a clip of Cousins shopping in Kohl’s went viral, and he ended up wearing a Kohl’s Cash chain to a game this season. This year’s series followed Jefferson, his teammate, and delineated how he transforms into his alter ego, ‘Jets,’ before games. Going into the series, NFL Films knew about the diametric personalities of receivers as compared to quarterbacks, part of which Zucco attributes to a lack of media training.
“They’re always [wanting] to be heard and be seen,” Zucco said. “They’re the quote-unquote ‘divas’ of the NFL, right? So we kind of knew just going into it that we wanted to highlight the personality of the players as much as anything else.”
Throughout the season, NFL Films kept the production of the show largely concealed from public knowledge. The clandestine nature of their work is something that the company has mastered over its more than six decades in operations, staying out of the way while being present in a voyeuristic manner. In fact, the show has featured athletes who have played in the Super Bowl for the last two years, allowing them to focus on devising and carrying out a game plan to defeat the opponent. Ahead of its production, the venture targeted players with chances to win, and while the strategy has proven advantageous, there are difficulties associated with qualifying for and winning a Super Bowl championship.
“We’ve certainly been very fortunate from a storyteller perspective having those seasons get as far along as they did,” Zucco said, “and if we get a season or some players [for whom] the season don’t go quite as far, it’ll be up to us to make it just as entertaining for the fans even though it wasn’t maybe at the final stages of the season.”
Balancing the type of content NFL Films and its partners present during these series is something that weighs heavily throughout the editing process. Yet the company has found a successful formula evidenced through rankings across five different platforms. Last year, NFL Films content had seven projects attain the No. 1 ranking in this regard, including Quarterback, Bullies of Baltimore and two editions of Hard Knocks.
“It’s a lot of work, [and] we have a lot of great people here, but let’s put it this way,” Zucco said. “Nobody’s complaining that we have this many shows and shows that are really hits right now.”
This offseason, NFL Films and HBO Sports announced that Hard Knocks would add an offseason series and transform its in-season edition to covering an entire division. The New York Giants are being featured for the offseason, conveying the processes and rationale behind free agency, the NFL Draft and preparing for the upcoming training camp.
While the schedules for these shows often line up well for NFL Films, a majority of the company tends to focus on the training camp version of the show through the month of August. Many staff members were split between post-production for Receiver and the offseason edition of Hard Knocks in recent months, further broadening and amplifying the content that is produced.
Having the Hard Knocks series air throughout the year is a testament to the NFL possessing palpable year-round appeal. In documenting games and airing episodes after they conclude for both Receiver and Hard Knocks, NFL Films aims to determine how it can add to the story and showcase elements from a different perspective that encompasses the game and its surroundings.
“When you’ve been doing this for a while, you kind of get a feel like, ‘We need a little break of football here. What type of stuff have we captured off the field that can kind of help us pace the show a little bit?’ and that’s really it,” Zucco said. “It’s more of a feel thing than anything else, but I do feel that showing these players’ personalities and how hard they work and everything it takes to play the game on the field is just as important to the series as a tremendous playoff game is.”
Maintaining a shrewd future outlook while being ready to react to unexpected permutations or shortcomings remains essential in being able to thrive within the media space. Although the aggregate attention span has diminished over the years, the longform content from NFL Films that is presented across its programming has found a way to cut through and aims to inform, educate and entertain viewers.
“When you’re watching it just on a game broadcast from a camera that’s up in a basket in the 200 level, it doesn’t quite resonate as much as it does when you’re right there on the sideline with them and you’re hearing them talk, and then you’re hearing them after the game talk to their wife about, ‘I wish I had done this,’ or, ‘This was such a great play,’” Zucco said. “It makes these guys more relatable.”
Derek Futterman is a former associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. Find him on X @derekfutterman.
